


Lost and Found

by smithy_of_words



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Akuze, Gen, Sole Survivor (Mass Effect)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 05:20:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21350884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smithy_of_words/pseuds/smithy_of_words
Summary: Marin Shepard goes to look into a supposed emergency signal from a human colony on Akuze. Things quickly go wrong.---A look into Shepard's grit and strength as she copes with one of the defining moments in her life.One-shot for N7 day.
Kudos: 2





	Lost and Found

“This is Shepard, we’re five klicks south of your position. We’ll finish checking this ridge line before heading back. Over.”

She strapped her radio back to her vest and adjusted her rucksack.

It crackled to life. “Roger, Lieutenant. We’ll see if we can’t find a good place to cook some grub. Might even keep some warm for you. Over.”

Marin snorted and rolled her eyes, but grinned nonetheless.

Commander Larson clapped her on the shoulders.

“Come on, let’s finish this and get back. Who knows? If we’re lucky, Martinez will actually have saved us some.”

Shepard laughed. “If we’re unlucky, it’ll be dextro.”

“Eh, it not too bad. I was stationed with a couple birds on my last assignment, and we got shipped Turian food. Turns out they overlooked our dietary requirements. Didn’t taste awful, but I was shitting for the next two days. Pretty sure they did that on purpose.”

Shepard scanned back and forth along the ridge with her eyes, pulling out her binoculars to get a closer look.

“And what did you do?”

Larson grinned. “What anyone else would do—slipped some human chocolate into their ration bars. Sure it made their next exercise fun. Still…wouldn’t want to share a foxhole with that smell.”

“Sir, you do know the First Contact War is over, right? Even if—wait, I see something again.”

Shepard put the binoculars to her eyes and focused in on an old disused bunker.

“What do you see?”

Shepard handed the binoculars to Larson and pointed above a grove of trees.

“Just there. See the smudge there? I think that’s a left over, maybe heat from a generator or something. I don’t think it’s an animal, it hasn’t moved since I checked twenty minutes ago.”

Larson nodded, handing them back. “Let’s go check it out. Something doesn’t feel right. That thing should’ve been abandoned.”

Shepard put her binoculars back in their case, and strapped it back on.

“You think it could be some kids playing a prank?”

Larson frowned. “Maybe. Dumb prank, though. Like pulling a fire alarm in a crowded theatre.”

Slowly, they crept their way up to the back of the disused bunker. The door was hard to find–the walls were grown over with vines.

Shepard looked at Larson and nodded.

She took a deep breath, then swung open the door, pistol raised.

“This is the Alliance Military. Show yourself.”

She swept across the room from corner to corner. Empty.

“It’s clear, Sir.”

She holstered her weapon and approached the object sitting in the middle of the floor.

Shepard pressed the back of her hand to it.

“Still warm. Someone’s been here recently.”

Larson entered, closing the door behind him.

“Boot it up. Let’s see what it does.”

Shepard opened her omni-tool and accessed the control panel. It was some sort of recording.

She pressed play.

“Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. Broadcasting to all Alliance channels: this is Alpha base on Akuze. This is an emergency. I repeat, this is an emergency. This is not a drill. Require immediate assistance. I will repeat—”

Shepard turned it off.

“Shit. Sir, I don’t feel right about this.”

Her radio crackled on again. “Hey, Shepard? Did you hear that? The distress beacon sounds like it went active again. Want us to do another sweep? Over.”

Larson shook his head, taking the radio from her. “Martinez, this is Larson. Get everyone to pack their gear and rendezvous at the drop site. Shepard and I will meet you there. No time to explain. We’re bugging out. Out.”

“Y-yes, Sir. Wilco.”

Larson handed Shepard her radio and checked the laces on his boots.

“Better get ready to hurry, Shep. Whoever set us up wanted us cut-off, which means we need to get back there right fucking now.”

Shepard felt a slight tremor in the ground and looked through the slit in the stone.

It looked as if a giant dust storm had come from nowhere, blanketing the valley below.

“Shit. Sir, I think you’d better come see this.”

Larson strode over and peered through long enough to clap Shepard on the back and make for the door.

“Come on, after me, double time! Weapons free.”

“Yes, Sir!” Shepard followed close behind, pistol back in hand.

It took only a few minutes to descend from the ridge to the edge of the valley, but in that time, it had changed completely.

The dry earth had cracked in two, with a massive rift down the centre. Boulders the size of cars had shifted, and the most of the trees had been uprooted.

“What the hell?” Larson pulled out his radio. “Martinez? Do you copy? Over.”

Nothing.

He tried again.

Nothing.

“Shepard, start a sweep of the perimeter. I’ll start on the interior and follow.”

“Sir.” Shepard nodded, stepping forward slowly, one foot in front of the other.

She swept side to side, checking carefully behind the debris.

Where the hell had everybody gone?

Then she heard it.

“Shep…ard. Shep…? Is that you? Please…” A voice rasped from nearby.

Marin knelt down, following the sound.

The voice came from a dense mass of foliage, which Shepard tore away at until she could see.

It looked like a dark mass of matted hair.

Private Samson lied in a pool of her own blood, her torso crushed underneath a fallen tree.

“Christ, Samson. What happened?”

She tried to meet Shepard’s eyes, but couldn’t summon the strength to move her head.

“It came from the ground. The ground. It came…and then there’s nothing.”

Shepard clenched her fists, “Easy, there. You’re not making a lot of sense. I’ll get Larson, we’ll shift this off you. Then, I’ll get Martinez and the others.”

“No. You have to get out of here. It’s not safe. It was never safe.”

Shepard felt like she was talking to a child, patting Samson’s head softly. “You just rest now. I’ll be right back.”

Samson didn’t answer.

Shepard hoped she was asleep from the pain but thought it unlikely.

She knelt down, her back to the trunk, and radioed Larson.

“This is Shepard. Found Private Samson, crushed under a tree pretty bad. We’re gonna need a med evac. Have you found anything? Over.”

Larson’s voice came back through garbled static. “N—alive. Found Mart—watch…and hand. Send me you—we’ll meet up. Over.”

“This is Shepard. Please say again. Over.”

Silence.

“Sir? Please say again. Over.”

Shepard looked down at Samson and grimaced, “I’ll come back for you, I promise. Just have to find Larson, then we’ll all be okay. We’ll get you outta here.”

She stood straight, wiping the sweat and dirt from her hands on her jacket, and moved forward.

She had taken only a few steps before the ground shook again, like no ship collision she’d ever experienced.

It went on and on, and through it all she heard what sounded like a roar…and screams.

She ran forward, following the sounds through the dust and dark.

Then, she saw it. Something like a giant snake bent and twisted sinuously through the air, before smashing to the ground, crushing all in its path.

“Holy shit.” Shepard’s eyes widened.

Their entire camp had been destroyed. All the equipment was scattered and broken, and huge fissures were cracked into the soil, impossibly wide and deep.

There were smears of blood everywhere.

And as Shepard’s eyes frantically scanned the scene, she saw what Larson had been talking about—a severed hand with a gold watch lay next to what used to be one of the tents.

_Fuck._

Gunshots went off nearby and she ran toward them.

“Get back, you piece of shit!”

Larson stood in a small clearing, releasing round after round into the side of the hideous beast.

Shepard raised her pistol and tried to flank it. She had emptied two magazines into the thing, and it barely seemed to notice. It just roared again, sending out vibrations so strong Shepard was sure her ears would bleed.

Another swing of its enormous body, and she was knocked off her feet. The third magazine clattered out of her hand to the ground.

She felt the world spin around her and let her eyes close.

_My head feels funny. Wet._

When she opened them, the dust had settled.

There was no sign of the creature, only the destruction it had wrought.

The bullets had stopped.

The screaming had stopped.

She forced herself to sit up, and immediately retched to her side.

It tasted like copper.

She winced, feeling her face sticky with half-dried blood.

“Come on.” Shepard wheezed, pulling out her canteen from off her belt, and poured a small amount of water into her hands. She tried halfheartedly to rub the blood from her eyes and nose, stopping only when her arms throbbed.

She leant on a nearby boulder and forced herself to stand and breathe.

Her ribs ached with the effort, but eventually, the world stood still.

She looked over at where Larson was standing. His rucksack was there.

But whatever he had been, it had been replaced with another smear on the landscape.

Shepard gritted her teeth and knelt down, looking through his bag.

She found the photo of his wife and kids she knew he kept in the front pocket and placed it in her own.

“Hm…” She felt herself smile for an instant, pulling out a chocolate bar. “Hope those Turians are still shitting, old man.”

She heard his radio buzz through the layers of cloth.

“—Alliance—come in? This is the SSV Normandy, responding to evac call. Please acknowledge? Over.”

Shepard felt her eyes burn and dug furiously, finding the half-crushed radio and mashing it in her hands.

“This is Lieutenant Shepard, Alliance Navy. I read you, Normandy. Requesting immediate evacuation at my coordinates. Transmitting now. Over.”

She activated her omni-tool and found the coordinates, sending them to all encrypted channels.

“Roger. This is SSV Normandy. Unable to land. We’ll set down at the nearest location available and send a flare from there. Can you make it to us? Over.”

Shepard just sighed. “Copy that, Normandy. Looks like I have no choice. I’ll be there. Out.”

Shepard spared once last glance down at her commanding officer and looked at the horizon.

A bright red light lit up the hazy sky, seeming to set the world on fire.

She felt the chocolate bar melting in the tight grip of her other fist.

“Something for the road, then huh, old man?”

She took a small bite and wiped her mouth against the back of her hand.

It was time to move.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I did this justice.  
Any constructive comments, questions, or concerns are welcomed.  
Also, please let me know if I messed up any of the military radio things. I tried to do research, but it's never a certainty with these things.  
Thanks for reading. : )


End file.
